Frictionful onboarding

In tech, it's a common saying that a frictionless onboarding is a better onboarding. But from my own experience, that’s not always true.

When working on Umi’s activation rate, I discovered that fewer steps in onboarding didn't necessarily mean more people activated. We actually saw the activation rate increase by several percent when we increased the number of onboarding steps. Our working theory was that more onboarding steps engaged users and makes them feel more invested.

Steward Butterfield, founder of Slack, confirmed our theory on an episode of Lenny’s Podcast. He explains that there is a comprehension gap which must be overcome.

A few quotes that stood out from the podcast:

There's also another issue around friction which is: It became like a mantra, an assumption that you should always be trying to remove friction.

No one needs to be explained why they'd want a car or beer. But everyone would have to be explained why they want Slack. And the problem there is comprehension

My intent isn't always 100%, and the specificity of my intent isn't always 100%.